At the 32nd Annual Austin Film Festival, Sell Out celebrated the World Premiere on October 23rd at the State Theater. It is written and directed by Austin-based filmmaker brothers Nick and Josh Holden. Sell Out is a satirical look at a neurotic novelist who can’t tell if his most significant problem is the blank page, his Southern family, or his best friends ‘ off-the-rails political campaign.
The film was primarily shot in Austin, with many familiar and well-known venues featured in this story. The filmmakers selected great locations in the city to tell their story about Benny Dink (Nick Holden), a novelist and single father of Lili Dink, on the cusp of forty, who watches his life unravel. His publisher rejects his latest book, and his relationship with his fiancée begins to fall apart.
Talent in Attendance for the Red Carpet – Nick Holden, Josh Holden, Adeline Holden, Jennifer Kuczaj, and Morgan Pollitt (Producers), Stephanie Hunt, Olivia Applegate, Bill Wise, Temple Baker, and Andrew Bujalski. In the interest of time, I was allowed to speak briefly with the cast members before the screening.
Temple Baker:
Q – Can you provide some information about the character you play in the film? How did you prepare?
TB: “I’m quite a character (in the film) as Charlie Monk, sort of a right-wing conspiracy – well, you know, a right-wing enthusiast running for the town mayor. How to know? Just watch the news a lot, you know? You hear what people are saying. And you hear how they say it. You ingest that and you try and figure out your own spin.”
Q- I’m curious, was that not something you normally did (watch the news), and you really had to do it to be able to develop that?
TB – “You know, I studied history in college. So, I do all the news, but I think definitely (I) watched a lot more, especially this was kind of the rise of the kind of the YouTube sort. You know, the Shapiros of the world.”
Q – Did you enjoy what you were doing for it?
TB – “Oh yeah! Absolutely! I mean, I am glad I am not that guy. It was an interesting, you know, interesting thought experience.”
Stephanie Hunt:
Q – Describe your character in the film?
SH – “I play (Amelia Dink) his sister in the film.” (Benny Dink, played by Nick Holden). Benny has so much to deal with and is reluctant to go back to Louisiana.
He (Benny) is to attend his sister’s third wedding, and when he returns to Louisiana, he unexpectedly prepares to officiate (at Amelia’s request). Back in his hometown, he wrestles with questions of integrity and compromise – dodging his childhood best friend Charlie (Temple Baker), who’s running an unsavory political campaign, and weighing a lucrative job offer that feels like selling out.